Renters Assemble & “Telling My Story”

Tenants gathered at a Statewide Renters Assembly in Alameda over the weekend. Ava and Fernando Nadal were there, gearing up to lead an attack on the landlord demon law, Costa Hawkins*. This, despite the impending loss of their home and Fernando’s upcoming major

If you’ve been asked to “tell your story” to a funder or politician, stick around for Sheela Gunn-Cushman’s essay. If you’ve ever asked a consumer, client or constituent to “tell your story,” you must listen as Sheela explores the grueling, degrading and thankless nature of this activist tool many of us rely on.

*Costa Hawkins is a state-wide law that limits the number, type and age of homes that can be covered by rent control. It was passed in the late ’90s at the request of landlord and realtor groups. Local groups working for rent control and just cause eviction find it a major barrier to success.

Protest of AirBnB

Hats off to a coalition of advocates for disabled people, seniors and tenants who rallied at the San Francisco headquarters of Airbnb on Oct.19. Despite Airbnb’s $30 billion dollar market value, Airbnb’s hosts routinely discriminate against people with disabilities. There’s nothing innovative or disruptive about discrimination, and there’s no law protecting a ‘platform’s’ right to embrace it.” Bob Planthold said, “Airbnb is a dominant player in the travel industry. It’s past time for the corporation to assume responsibility for ensuring all travelers have access to its accommodations.”

Due to new Federal requirements in the CURES Act, California will soon monitor the coming and going of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) recipients and our care providers with some form of a call-in system for monitoring and tracking when an IHSS recipient’s care provider arrives to clock in and out for work, verifies the presence of the IHSS recipient, verifies or tracks the location of the recipient, and demands to know the services (tasks) rendered or delivered to the IHSS recipient during the providers’ working hours. There will be a series of stakeholder meetings in Sacramento to help plan these changes. This is the first one:

Those of us with disabilities who are IHSS recipients should look at these regulations and provide input and feedback as we will be impacted by this Big Brother regulatory oversight of our lives. We can only presume that this paternalistic approach to monitoring the coming and going of our IHSS providers (and waiver providers) will result in an infringement of our freedom of mobility and how we will be forced to live our lives on a short leash or under some adverse system of tracking with calling in or out similar to a criminal wearing an ankle bracelet.

If the state fails to comply with these new regulations, the state will lose federal funding.

Axis Dance

Hold the last weekend of Oct. The disabled and non-disabled, mixed-ability group, Axis Dance, is celebrating their 30th anniversary with performances titled “Onward and Upward.” It’s a program of three dances, including one by their new Artistic Director, Mark Brew. That one was created in collaboration with JooWan Kim, artistic director of the Hip-Hop Orchestra. That’s Axis Dance performances — the last week of October.

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This program produced and hosted by Sheela Gunn-Cushman and Adrienne Lauby.